- BornAPoorBlkChild
- Sep 24, 2012
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quote:
Film L.A. chief: GA will never pass L.A.
Jul 17, 2015, 6:00am EDT Updated Jul 17, 2015, 1:37pm EDT
With 42 film and television productions currently underway in Georgia, the movie and TV business in the state is at an all-time high. The Georgia Department of Economic Development announced last week the economic impact of the industry reached $6 billion in fiscal 2014. On July 14, Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Ellie Hensley spoke with Paul Audley, president of FilmL.A., the nonprofit film office that serves the Greater Los Angeles region, to discuss “runaway productions” choosing other states over California, Georgia’s chances of beating out New York or L.A. to become a top-two production center and the future of the industry overall.
Atlanta Business Chronicle: To what extent are runaway productions still a problem for Los Angeles? We continue to know that runaway productions are going to exist. The $330 million [incentive] that California now offers should return some of the largest budget film and more dramatic television back to California and L.A., but we recognize that there’s still a massive competition worldwide for this industry and it would probably take more than $1 billion to truly stop the outflow.
How does Hollywood view the burgeoning film industry in Georgia? What we know is Georgia with an uncapped credit will remain one of the places that the film industry will continue to go to work. The state and its supporters are working very hard to continue and I think to create a permanent base for filming in Georgia by developing studios and trying to develop crew and underbase. Right now I think the shortages that Georgia has are crew depth and the base of vendors isn’t as deep as some other places. But they’re clearly working on that as well.
Georgia now has Moon River Studios, the largest film and television studio project in America, under development, right?... What Moon River is claiming is that it’s the largest project in the U.S. now — in other words, the largest thing on the books to be built. The rest of the media seemed to get overwrought with the idea that Moon River was going to be the largest studio in the country, which is not what it is... [The studio] did a good job in getting attention by leaving that potential for people not to read it carefully enough, to see they’re talking about a development project. I mean, we have 4 million square feet of studio space in this region right around me, and I think currently their plan is to build 40,000 square feet. I know it has a much larger proposal out there, even the plan itself includes not only studios but amphitheaters, and retail and office and things in addition to the production space, and all of that’s included in [the studio’s] news release statement.
How likely do you think it is that Georgia could ever surpass New York or L.A.? It’s not going to. It’s just not. What you have in both New York and California are vast studio systems and space to do the work in, and for example, with Moon River, these [Georgia sound stages] are not places that are centered around each other. New York is very dense, very local, tons of stuff within a few square miles. L.A., the same thing... When you get into some of the larger states that are trying it, and it’s dispersed around different locations that mean driving an hour or two to get from one place to another, and moving vendors that distance, it just doesn’t have the same sustainability that these two key centers of production have for the long term.
How many years do you think would it take for Georgia to develop the kind of crew base to compete with New York and L.A.? I don’t know if Georgia’s intention is to get to that place of competing on that level or not, because I don’t know what the long term economic plan is by the state. But it would take them probably a decade to meet the current needs to build up and be there... If you create lots of space and that space doesn’t have a lot of work going on, the vendors aren’t going to stay, the crew isn’t going to stay. I have no idea what Georgia’s plans are but they have to be going in very incremental steps to make sure to create a stable industry, otherwise it’s unsustainable.
How do you foresee this playing out? Over time I’ve been sort of predicting we may see four or five centers in the world...China is still a new entry in this and how involved they’re going to get for filming. London has really established itself... and has had major investment. New York and L.A. certainly will be in it permanently. Vancouver is in it, and it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere. Georgia is the other place that’s growing and the question is sustainability for Georgia. I don’t think you’ll ever go back to seeing just one or two places in the world make film, but I think you’ll see a continued cutting back of states that have not found the return on investment that they’d hoped for.
boy as a film student in Georgia im positive we'll prove him wro--
LITERALLY A YEAR LATER...
quote:Failed Savannah film studio project executives charged with fraud
Sep 26, 2016, 2:21pm EDT Updated Sep 26, 2016, 2:25pm EDT
Three executives of Moon River Studios, the failed film studio complex outside Savannah, Ga., are in trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly defrauding investors.
On Sept. 23, the SEC charged Manu Kumaran, the founder and former chairman and CEO of Medient Studios (later Moon River Studios), his successor Jake Shapiro and Roger Miguel, the CEO of Moon River's parent company Fonu2, with allegedly backdating and falsifying documents in an attempt to secure financing for the project.
Moon River Studios was originally slated to be a 1,560-acre studio complex in Effingham County with sound stages, an outdoor concert venue, post production offices and more. It would have been the largest studio project in the United States, but work never began on it.
Its master plan was approved by Effingham commissioners, it received permits and awarded a construction contract, but then it hit a brick wall. It did not meet the expectations of the Effingham County Industrial Development Authority, and in October 2015, the project was scaled down to 51 acres.
Moon River signed on to produce a James Brown documentary, but no project ever materialized, according to the SEC. Instead, it alleges Kumaran spent an average of $1,700 of investors' money a day on "globetrotting travel and personal expenses... after claiming publicly he did not draw a salary and assuring stakeholders that all funds were being used to benefit the company."
Shapiro allegedly spent company money on a nearly $1 million house.
Litigation continues for Kumaran and Shapiro. Miguel agreed to settle the charges without admitting guilt or denying the allegations. He is barred from participating in penny stock offerings and serving as a public company officer or director for five years. The court has not yet determined monetary sanctions, and the settlement is subject to its approval.
Three Moon River board members who allegedly did not participate in the fraud were separately charged with violating federal securities laws by failing to report stock transactions in a timely fashion. Former New York Democratic Gov. David A. Paterson and music producer Charles A. Koppelman will pay $25,000 each in penalties. Administrative proceedings are underway for Matthew T. Mellon II, former chairman of the New York Republican Party Finance Committee.
"We allege that Kumaran and Shapiro preyed upon investor interest in the movie industry and financed their own lifestyles rather than build the promised Studioplex,” said Walter Jospin, director of the SEC’s Atlanta Regional Office, in a statement. "Koppelman, Paterson, and Mellon allegedly failed in their personal responsibility to comply with the beneficial ownership reporting requirements of the federal securities laws."
BornAPoorBlkChild fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Oct 11, 2016
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Oct 11, 2016 16:27
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Apr 25, 2024 00:35
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- SimonCat
- Aug 12, 2016
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by Nyc_Tattoo
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College Slice
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I'm still bummed that the Iowa film office crashed and burned in scandal. It would have been fun to have cornfields being the backdrop to every low-budget movie to come along.
Take a look at The Crazies, filmed in Georgia and Iowa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7w9uWFIMBs
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Oct 14, 2016 15:13
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- HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
- Sep 14, 2007
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everything is yours
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What's the story behind that?
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Oct 14, 2016 19:42
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- SimonCat
- Aug 12, 2016
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by Nyc_Tattoo
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College Slice
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What's the story behind that?
Pretty basic embezzlemen, claiming things like a broom costing $500.
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Oct 15, 2016 04:53
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- HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
- Sep 14, 2007
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everything is yours
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Pretty basic embezzlemen, claiming things like a broom costing $500.
So pretty much the Simpsons episode about filming Radioactive Man.
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Oct 15, 2016 11:22
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- BornAPoorBlkChild
- Sep 24, 2012
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It all works until the taxpayers and the local yolkels at the state level government realize that film subsidies is a raw deal.
It was like when I was in Vancouver, working on a few films, public expenditures on film is fast approaching a billion a year in BC and the politicians are trying to figure out how to pump the brakes on a uncapped freight train that has already gobbled up all of the income from their carbon tax.
Like Louisiana and New Mexico. "The future of film" 
i just want georgia to become another L.A.
is that so much to ask ?
seriously
quote: October 20, 2016 10:38am PT by Ashley Cullins
'Walking Dead' Producer Sues for Trademark Infringement
The name 'Valhalla' is at the center of the dispute.
A producer behind AMC's The Walking Dead is suing a company that is building production facilities using a similar name, according to a complaint filed Wednesday in Georgia federal court.
Valhalla Entertainment says it has been developing and producing successful movies and television shows for nearly 20 years, and now it claims an unaffiliated company is hoping to capitalize on that hard work by building production facilities under the name Valhalla Studios.
With its seventh season premiering on Sunday, The Walking Dead is still the most-watched show on cable and has sparked two successful spinoffs, Fear The Walking Dead and Talking Dead.
To complicate matters further, the allegedly infringing facilities are in Atlanta — where the hit zombie series films.
"Defendants’ unauthorized use of the 'Valhalla' name creates a misleading association between the Defendants’ production facilities and the existing, thriving, and famous family of Valhalla motion picture and television entities," writes attorney Holmes J. Hawkins in the complaint.
Valhalla Entertainment says the studio has already caused confusion and will continue to do so, mentioning several Atlanta Business Chronicle stories. Valhalla is suing for trademark infringement, unfair competition, deceptive trade practices and trademark dilution.
"The public and members of the trade are likely to believe that Valhalla would naturally include in its offerings — or expand its offerings to include — studios and other facilities for the production of motion pictures and television shows," Hawkins writes.
Valhalla Studios executive chairman of the board Ryan Millsap told The Hollywood Reporter he was surprised to learn a lawsuit had been filed.
"We’ve been in very cordial conversation with Valhalla Entertainment’s legal counsel for about a month," said Millsap. "We didn’t know about Valhalla Entertainment. We’ve been trying to work things out, and we are in the process of changing our name. In the meantime, we’re referring to ourselves as 'The Studio Formerly Known as Valhalla.'"
gently caress it KEEPS HAPPENING
we're not gonna have anymore Hollywood here soon, arent we?
BornAPoorBlkChild fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Oct 21, 2016
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Oct 21, 2016 17:15
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- Vegetable
- Oct 22, 2010
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I have on good authority that Reykjavik is the next LA
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Oct 22, 2016 17:38
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- BornAPoorBlkChild
- Sep 24, 2012
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Yes. You're asking for a relationship when the business just wants to bang and sleep in its own bed. No matter how many studios, trained workers, etc you make, film production is going to move to the next hotbed of lowered costs, and it will function this way until the end of time.
well drat, can we at least get it to stay for awhile?
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Oct 22, 2016 22:36
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Oct 11, 2016 16:27
